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The United States is in debt. Big time. And some wonder how the richest country in the world got so deep into debt.

The answer is: Exactly the way any family household does. The United States spent more — sometimes a lot more — than it brought in.

America spends a lot of money on so-called “entitlements,” which are actually the programs that make America America: Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment and welfare. Most Americans are OK with that. Few object to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, America’s largest hunger safety net.

But Americans are right to be wary of the U.S. war operation, which, according to a new study, doled out some six trillions on war since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That’s $6,000,000,000,000, and that’s a lot of scratch.

Just last month we hit another milestone: The U.S. has now been at war in Afghanistan for 17 years. That makes it the second longest in U.S. history, after the Vietnam debacle, which ran for 20 years.